Cup holders provide great convenience to motor vehicle users, providing a receiver for containers such as cups, glasses, etc. whereby the user need not continually hold the container in her hand to avoid spillage during motor vehicle operation. With reference to FIG. 1, the typical cup holder 100 provides at least one receiver 120 configured and dimensioned to receive and hold a container (not shown) such as a beverage container. That receiver 120 may include a structure for reducing or preventing slippage or vibration of a container held therein, being as simple as one or more rubber pads or more complex designs such as biasable mechanical fingers (not shown). A pivoting, sliding, or otherwise translatable lid or door 140 may also be provided to hide the receivers 120 when not in use.
For convenience, users often stow items other than beverage containers in the receivers 120 of a cup holder 100. For example, users may wish to set electronic devices 160 such as smartphones, cell phones, small tablet computers, etc. in a cup holder for easy access. Conventional cup holders 100 do not include suitable holders for such electronic devices, raising issues of safety and potential damage to items held loosely in a receiver 120 not dimensioned for that item.
To solve this and other problems, the present disclosure relates to a cup holder assembly for installation in a vehicle. The cup holder assembly includes an integrated holder configured to securely hold an electronic device, for example a smartphone. Advantageously, the disclosed cup holder assembly provides that holder suitably dimensioned for holding an electronic device, without occupying any of the beverage container receivers. Still further, the described holder is configured to allow access to a full central axis of the electronic device, thus allowing simple and safe actions such as powering the device on or off without removing the device from the holder.